Female overseas Vietnamese applauded in Hanoi

Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women's Union Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa has praised the role of overseas Vietnamese, especially the female in contributing to the country’s development and boosting friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries.

Speaking at a meeting with 200 female overseas Vietnamese in Hanoi on Nov 22, Chairwoman Hoa said that overseas Vietnamese have been seen as bridges to promote images on Vietnam ’s land, culture and people to the world.

Overseas Vietnamese are integral parts of the great family of ethnic groups in Vietnam and whenever they live, they always bring into full play their patriotism, cultural identities, and national traditions, she said, adding that the Party and State always acknowledged and highly value women’s great contributions as well as create favourable conditions for them to implement gender equal and advancement.

Therese Nguyen Van Ky, an expatriate in France, called on the Vietnam Women's Union to create favourable conditions to help overseas Vietnamese, especially the female, to maintain and impart the Vietnamese language and the country’s culture and history to young generations.

Other representatives from the US, Ukraine expressed their sentiments to the country and gave opinions to the development of the Vietnam Women’ Union.

CPV seeks enhanced ties with United Russia party

The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) maintains a policy of enhancing its ties with the United Russia (ER) party to help strengthen and further develop traditional friendship and all-sided, trustful and mutually beneficial cooperation between Vietnam and Russia, a CPV senior official said at the ER’s 11 th congress.

Addressing the congress on Nov. 21, Truong Tan Sang, who is Permanent Secretary of the CPV Central Committee’s Secretariat, reaffirmed that in its foreign policy, Vietnam always places importance and gives high priority to the development of relationship with Russia .

He told the ER members that Vietnam is satisfactory with new developments in the two countries’ ties in every field in the spirit of strategic partnership adopted by senior leaders of both countries.

Sang said that the Vietnamese communists and people have keenly followed the operation, role and position of the ER, and felt happy for immense achievements Russia has gained under the leadership of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The Vietnamese communists and people have lauded Russia’s positive stance as well as its important role in maintaining peace and stability and in promoting cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and the world for the establishment of a new world order of justice and equality, the Vietnamese official noted.

He expressed belief that by implementing a resolution to be adopted at this congress, the ER would continue to reaffirm its position and leading role in Russia ’s socio-political life, contributing to realising strategic tasks of modernising Russia and turning the country into a prosperous and powerful one which plays an important role in international relations.

Earlier on the day, Sang handed over the CPV Central Committee’s greetings to the Chairman of the ER Supreme Council, Boris Gryzlov.

On the occasion, Sang signed with the ER Chairman an agreement on cooperation between the CPV and the ER, following which the two parties will regularly hold consultancy and exchange of information regarding outstanding events in the two countries, and in bilateral and international relations.

The two parties will share experiences in the Party building work, organisational affairs, inspection and supervision, personnel training, publication, and other areas of interests.

Furthermore, the two parties will frequently exchange visits at all levels, and organise expert-level meetings, bilateral and multilateral seminars, conferences and round-table talks to discuss emergency issues in the Vietnam-Russia relationship and international ties of mutual concern.

In the agreement, the two parties pledge to further support the relationship between youth’s organisations, women’s unions, educational and humanitarian organizations and other social organizations.

Later on the day, Sang and his entourage attended a symposium debating political parties’ social responsibility in global crisis.

On Nov. 19, the Vietnamese communists laid a wreath at a monument dedicated to President Ho Chi Minh at the Ho Chi Minh Square in Moscow, and met with the Vietnamese embassy staff and representatives of Vietnamese communities in Russia .

They met with Vice Secretary of the Saint Petersburg ER Committee, Konstantin Serov and held talks with St. Petersburg Mayor Valentina Matvienko on ways to step up the wide-ranging strategic partnership between St. Petersburg and Vietnamese cities.

Sang and his entourage arrived in Russia on November 18 and will stay there until November 23.

Malaysian firm, Vietsovpetro to operate new oil field

Malaysian firm Bumi Armada snd Vietnamese-Russian joint venture Vietsovpetro have been awarded contracts to operate a new oil field called White Rhinoceros in the Cuu Long Basin of coastal Vung Tau City.

The Hoang Long Joint Operating Company signed three deals with the Malaysian firm and the joint venture Friday (Nov 20), which established an alliance to run the field also called Te Giac Trang (TGT) for seven years, with an option of yearly extensions to 15 years. The deals have a total worth of US$700 million.

Bumi Armada would be responsible to supplying alliance with a floating production storage and offloading vessel which has a capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil per day and a storage capacity of 100 million barrels of processed oil with water and gas injection, said Hoang Long’s chief executive officer Ngo Huu Hai.

He said the joint venture would conduct offshore installation and subsequent maintenance of the vessel to operate the field.

The first production of oil from the field with estimated reserves of 300 million barrels of oil about 20 kilometers northwest of the Bach Ho field and 35 kilometers west of Rang Dong field is expected by the second quarter of 2011, Hai added.

Hoang Long which has the TGT concession for 10 years, is a partnership comprising Petrovietnam, Soco International, national petroleum exploration and production company PTTEP and Opeco Vietnam.

Vietnam and US hold third BIT negotiation round

The third round of negotiations on the Vietnam-US Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) was held in Washington DC from November 17-19.

The Vietnamese delegation, headed by a representative from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, included representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the State Bank of Vietnam, and the National Committee for International Economic Co-operation.

The US delegation, led by officials from the Department of State and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), were comprised of delegates from the Department of Commerce and the Department of Treasury.

The two delegations reviewed and exchanged views on provisions of the US model BIT, naming their interest that will help create a foundation for more practical discussions at the next negotiation rounds.

The Vietnamese delegation gave further discussions to identify the proposals incorporated into the latest draft of the US model BIT text. It raised its concerns about the possibility to execute some terms and conditions in the draft, especially those relating to transfer of money, financial services, list of non-conforming measures that are maintained by a party, minimum standard treatment.

It also dealt with publication of laws and decisions respecting investment, expropriation, investor-state dispute settlement, scope of application, relations between this treaty and other international treaties and agreements by which Vietnam and the US have abided or will abide.

The US delegation provided a clear explanation of the goals and requirements it set in incorporating proposals into the model BIT. They recognised the Vietnamese side's concerns and had a deeper understanding of legal and practical issues relating to the application of BIT in Vietnam.

The negotiations took place in an atmosphere of openness and frankness. Both sides expressed satisfaction at the other's preparations for and working in, the negotiations.

The US delegation proposed the next round of negotiations take place in Vietnam in early 2010. The Vietnamese delegation accepted the US proposal and pledged early response.

Vietnam, US boost co-operation in sea ports

Vietnam and the United States have pledged to boost the development of sea ports and transportation services at their two ports of Can Tho and Houston to raise trade value between the two countries.

A Memorandum of Understanding underscoring the pledge was signed on November 20 in Texas by General Director of the Port of Houston Authority Aleg Dryer and Director of the Can Tho Port Pham Thanh Tien.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, General Director Dryer said that the Port of Houston Authority would like to expand the co-operation in the fields of economy, trade and sea transportation with many countries, especially with Asia, after the upgrade of the Panama canal, which is slated for completion by 2014 and Vietnam is one of the countries the Houston municipal authorities pay attention to.

Vice Chairman of the Can Tho municipal People’s Committee Tran Tuan Anh invited leaders of Houston city to visit Can Tho to realise the recently-signed MoU, opening ways for transportation of goods from Vietnam to the US through the Port of Houston.

The Port of Houston is the US’s largest port in terms of goods transportation between the US and other countries.

VNPT to invest in undersea cable 
 
The Prime Minister has given the nod to the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) to invest in the Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) undersea cable system construction project. 
 
The 8,000 kilometre cable line will link regional economies, namely China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore. 
 
The project, jointly invested by Chinese carriers China Telecom and China Unicom, Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, the Republic of Korea (RoK)'s KT Corp., Japan's NTT Communications, Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PDLT), Telekom Malaysia and Vietnam's VNPT, is expected to be in service in the third quarter of 2011. 
 
APG will be used to provide extra capacity for growing demand in the region and as a preventive solution to replace existing regional cables.

VietNamNet/VNA, ND

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